Coleman Ratcliffe (Blake Gibbons)
'Mitchell "Coleman" Ratcliffe '''is a fictional character on the popular ABC daytime drama ''General Hospital. He has been portrayed by actor Blake Gibbons since 2002. Storylines Backstory Coleman is the former owner and operator of The Floating Rib bar. When the character debuted in 2002, he was the owner of a bar called The Oasis. One night a drunken AJ Quartermaine ran his car into The Oasis and in order to keep Coleman from turning AJ over to the police, AJ's then wife Courtney Matthews, agreed to work as a stripper for Coleman at one of his clubs. The arrangement worked out fine, until AJ - not realizing that Courtney had already paid off their debt, set fire to Coleman's bar. AJ's half-brother Jason Morgan ran interference on the situation and paid Coleman off so that he would keep quiet about who burned down the bar. He also threatened to frame Coleman for burning down his own bar, so Coleman took the payoff and used that money to buy Jake's, which would later become The Floating Rib. Pursuit of Courtney Coleman's association with the Quartermaines didn't end there, but continued well into the future and he was later revealed to be Courtney's stalker. When word arose that Courtney had a stalker, Jason was assigned to protect her, by her half-brother Sonny Corinthos. Jason gave Courtney a gun to carry with her and protect herself with and one night, after feeling that she was being followed, she shot her stalker, who happened to be Coleman. Coleman ended up in General Hospital, and once he made it through his surgery, he told Marcus Taggert, that AJ hired him to stalk Courtney, so that Courtney would stay with him and not move on to his brother Jason. Unfortunately AJ's plan backfired on him and his relationship with Courtney ended. Courtney then became involved with Jason, but Coleman still made plans to pursue her for himself. After a drunken Skye Quartermaine runs down Nikolas Cassadine, Coleman covers for her and takes the blame for the crime. He planned to help Skye so that she would owe him a favor. He wanted Skye to help him look like a better man in the hopes that Courtney would see him as more appealing and turn to him. As he tried to blackmail Skye into helping him, the two eventually wound up in bed together. When Luis Alcazar was murdered, a feverish Skye admitted to Coleman that she was actually the one who killed him, and Coleman with the help of AJ framed Brenda Barrett for the crime in order to protect Skye. Lukcily it turned out that Skye really was innocent and was not the murdered after all. Coleman then hooked up with Faith Rosco, who wanted to use him as a means to get closer to Sonny Corinthos. While working for Faith, he continued to work with AJ and soon was hired to take incriminating photos of Sonny and Faith. When Coleman told Faith of his new assignment, she not only agreed with it but even offered to help him get the photos. After his association with Faith ended, he was hired by Tracy Quartermaine-Spencer to steal a treasure on her behalf from a ship named The Courage. Unfortunately, a fire at the Port Charles ruined his plans, and Luke Spencer ended up with the treasure. Next, Coleman tried his hand at being a private investigator and was instrumental in helping Carly Corinthos find her birth father. When they learned that Carly's father was John Durant, a prosecutor known for his vendetta against the mob, Coleman helped Carly keep the news from her husband Sonny. They lied about the kind of man that Durant really was to keep his vendetta a secret. He then took a break from the drama and embarked on an exciting love affair with Tracy. However this didn't last long and soon he was right back in the middle of things, when he agreed to take compromising photos of Nikolas Cassadine and Emily Bowen-Quartermaine, so that Jasper Jacks could win back Courtney's love from Nikolas. The plan almost blew up in his face when Nikolas and Emily were jumped at Jake's, but luckily Coleman was able to diffuse the situation and later pacify an angry Sonny Corinthos. When Courtney died in 2006 from the encephalitis virus, Coleman grieved for her and attended her funeral to say goodbye to a young woman that he had always respected and admired. 2006-14 Coleman has since faded into the background and hasn't been heavily involved in any storylines since 2006. He has been shown to be really good friends with Dr. Patrick Drake and often gives Patrick advice on how to handle his love life with Dr. Robin Scorpio. In 2008, Coleman served as Patrick's best man at his October 31, wedding to Robin, but the wedding was interrupted when Robin went into labor. In late 2009, Coleman becomes involved with fashion icon Kate Howard and the two have been dating steadily ever since. In 2010, Coleman served as a juror at Sonny Corinthos' trial for the murder of Claudia Zacchara. Coleman was later dismissed by the courts as a juror due to his disruptive behavior during the trial. He is paid by Luke Spencer to change the name from Jake's to The Floating Rib and hires Mac Scorpio as the new bartender/manager in 2012. In 2014, Coleman was busted for assisting Peter Harrell, Jr., and his accomplice, Jeffrey Scribner. Although Coleman didn't know how dangerous Peter was. Crimes Committed *Accepted $250,000 from A.J. Quartermaine to 'stalk' Courtney so that she would stay with him 2005 *Claimed to have run down Nikolas Cassadine with his car (it was actually Skye) 9, 2002 *Blackmailed Skye, threatening to tell everyone she hit Nikolas if she didn't help him polish his image 10, 2002 *Helped A.J. and Skye frame Brenda Barrett for Luis Alcazar's murder 2002 *Overheard Skye confess to killing Luis Alcazar but promised he wouldn't turn her in to the police 26, 2002 *Paid Ida Warren off so that she would continue to say she saw Brenda push Luis and that Jason had paid her to leave town 30, 2002 *Teamed up with Faith Rosco so that they could get to Sonny Corinthos 2003 *Attempted to steal the Blackthorn treasure without success at an auction 5, 2004 *Helped Tracy Quartermaine cover up Ross Duncan's murder 2004 *Fabricated information on Carly's father at her request to keep Sonny from learning it was John Durant 2004 *Thrown off jury duty in the trial of the murder of Claudia Zacchara and jailed for the remainder of the trial 2010 *Sold stolen goods on the black market 2014; arrested Health and Vitals *Shot by Courtney Matthews while he was masked as her stalker 31, 2002 *Assaulted by Patrick Drake 28, 2008 *Assaulted by Dante Falconeri 25, 2014 External links *Who's Who in Port Charles: Coleman Ratcliffe Category:General Hospital characters Category:Characters Category:Fictional criminals Category:Fictional businesspeople Category:Fictional bartenders Category:Fictional private investigators Category:2000s Category:2010s Category:Characters created by Robert Guza, Jr. Category:Characters created by Charles Pratt, Jr. Category:Characters introduced by Jill Farren Phelps